Precocity. Since, as a rule, the musically gifted are proportionately precocious, they begin early in childhood to realize their peculiar gift for musical appreciation, individual interpretation, and often fabulous child performance as more or less child prodigies. This tendency to become a prodigy is inherent in musical precocity and starting early makes him conspicuous as a child, interferes with his adaptation to the behavior of the common man, and leads to a specialization and intensification of those elements which gain for him the approbation of his constituency, a following for the hero, and towering admiration. On the other hand, it makes him an object of ridicule.
Usually it is the narrowly-educated musician that is strikingly temperamental. To excel in his art, supreme effort has often centered upon that goal at the sacrifice of a broadening education and the development of a well-rounded and healthy-minded personality. Current academic recognition of music and improved facilities for training will decrease the number of temperamental musicians. After all, temperament is not all a gift: it is largely acquired through learning in the school of hard knocks. It is often a cheap imitation.
What then is the musical temperament? It is a species of the artistic behavior found in all artistic pursuits, arising partly from heredity and partly from training, environment, and simulation; intensified by high sensitivity, highly-strung disposition, dominant ear-mindedness, emotional strain, lopsided education, pursuit of esthetic goals, leadership and hero worship, and often a forced precocity.
This type of analysis could be carried much farther, but these items may suffice as fair samples to show that the artistic temperament in music is an essential gift demanded by the nature of the art. It may be good or bad, inborn or cultivated, genuine or simulated, and often runs into eccentricities so that we frequently view it in a superior attitude of amusement. But let us thank all the gods in the Kingdom of the Muses for their great gift, the potentially good musical temperament.
THOUGHT REVIEW
General Principles
(1) The musical temperament may be good or bad. (2) It is inherent in the intensive music situation. (3) The musical temperament generally has a[a] hereditary basis in a highly-strung nervous disposition. (4) It has large common elements with the artistic temperament of the painter and the poet, but is more eruptive. (5) It is often of strategic advantage in musical performance. (6) In many respects it is a defense reaction. (7) It may be either extrovert or introvert. (8) It is most fascinating when artistic and serenely serious; most ludicrous when affected; and most abominable when it takes the form of tantrums and exhibitionism.
Consider These Questions
(1) Can you name ten musicians who exhibit a "charming" musical temperament? (2) Can you name ten musicians who exhibit a "noxious" musical temperament? (3) Can you recall ten practical jokes which exemplify temperamental behavior, good or bad? (4) What are some of the first evidences of temperamental behavior in the musically precocious child? (5) Should the musical temperament in a child be cultivated? (6) Why is the current music supervisor rarely temperamental? (7) Was long hair a temperamental trait? (8) Is temperamental behavior proportionate to excellence in music?